Rickenbacker International Corporation is a string instrument manufacturer based in Santa Ana, California. The company is credited as the first known maker of electric guitars —in 1932—and produced a range of electric guitars and bass guitars. Rickenbacker twelve string guitars were favored by The Beatles, Roger McGuinn of The Byrds, Gerry Marsden of Gerry and the Pacemakers. Players of the six string include John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival, John Kay of Steppenwolf and Tom Petty of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Players who have used Rickenbacker basses include Paul McCartney, Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead, Cliff Burton of Metallica, Glenn Hughes of Deep Purple, Paul Wilson of Snow Patrol, Chris Squire of Yes, Geddy Lee of Rush, Al Cisneros of Sleep and Om. Current line of products manufactured include electric and acoustic basses. Adolph Rickenbacher and George Beauchamp founded the company in 1931 along with as the Ro-Pat-In Corporation to sell electric Hawaiian guitars. Beauchamp had designed these instruments, assisted by Paul Barth and Harry Watson, at National String Instrument Corporation.

They chose the brand name Rickenbacher. Early examples bear the brand name Electro; the early instruments were nicknamed "frying-pans" because of their long necks and small circular bodies. They are the first known solid-bodied electric guitars, they had a single pickup with two magnetized steel covers, shaped like "horse shoes," that arched over the strings. By the time they ceased producing the "frying pan" model in 1939, they had made several thousand units. Electro String sold amplifiers to go with their guitars. A Los Angeles radio manufacturer named Van Nest designed the first Electro String production-model amplifier. Shortly thereafter, design engineer Ralph Robertson further developed the amplifiers, by the 1940s at least four different Rickenbacker models were available. James B. Lansing of the Lansing Manufacturing Company designed the speaker in the Rickenbacker professional model. During the early 1940s, Rickenbacker amps were sometimes repaired by Leo Fender, whose repair shop evolved into the Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company.

George Beauchamp was a vaudeville performer and steel guitarist who, like many acoustic guitarists in the pre-electric-guitar 1920s, was looking for some way to make his instrument cut through an orchestra. He first conceived of a guitar fitted with a phonograph-like amplifying horn, he approached inventor and violin-maker John Dopyera, who made a prototype that was, by all accounts, a failure. Their next collaboration involved experiments with mounting three conical aluminum resonators into the body of the guitar beneath the bridge; these efforts produced an instrument that so pleased Beauchamp that he told Dopyera that they should go into business to manufacture them. After further refinements, Dopyera applied for a patent on the so-called tri-cone guitar on April 9, 1927. Thereafter and his brothers made the tri-cone guitars in their Los Angeles shop, under the brand name National. On January 26, 1928, the National String Instrument Corporation opened, with a new factory located near a metal-stamping shop owned by Adolph Rickenbacher and staffed by experienced and competent craftsmen.

The company made Spanish and Hawaiian style tri-cone guitars as well as four-string tenor guitars and ukuleles. Adolph Rickenbacher was born in Basel, Switzerland in 1887 and emigrated to the United States to live with relatives after the death of his parents. Sometime after moving to Los Angeles in 1918, he changed his surname to "Rickenbacker". In 1925, Rickenbacker and two partners formed the Rickenbacker Manufacturing Company and incorporated it in 1927. By the time he met George Beauchamp and began manufacturing metal bodies for the "Nationals" being produced by the National String Instruments Corporation, Rickenbacker was a skilled production engineer and machinist. Adolph Rickenbacher became a shareholder in National and, with the assistance of his Rickenbacker Manufacturing Company, National boosted production to fifty guitars a day. National's line of instruments was not well diversified and, as demand for the expensive and hard-to-manufacture tri-cone guitars began to slip, the company realized that it would need to produce instruments with a lower production cost to remain competitive.

Dissatisfaction with what John Dopyera felt was mismanagement led him to resign from National in January 1929. He subsequently formed the Dobro Manufacturing Corporation called Dobro Corporation and began to manufacture his own line of resonator-equipped instruments. Patent infringement disagreements between National and Dobro led to a lawsuit in 1929, with Dobro suing National for $2 million in damages. Problems within National's management as well as pressure from the deepening Great Depression led to a production slowdown at National; this resulted in part of the company's fractured management structure organizing support for George Beauchamp's newest project: development of a electric guitar. By the late twenties, the idea for electrified string instruments had been around for some time, experimental banjo and guitar pickups had been developed. George Beauchamp had experimented with electric amplification as early as 1925, but his early efforts, which used microphones, did not produce the effect he desired.

Beauchamp pursued the idea, building a one-string test guitar out of a 2X4 piece of lumber and an electric phonograph pickup. As problems at National became more apparent, Beauchamp's home experiments became more rigorous, he began to attend night classes in electronics and collaborate with

The Dumb Girl of Portici is a 1916 American silent historical drama film directed by Phillips Smalley and Lois Weber and starring Anna Pavlova, Rupert Julian and Wadsworth Harris. The film was released on DVD/Blu-ray in 2018 with a new score by John Sweeney. Anna Pavlova as Fenella Rupert Julian as Masaniello Wadsworth Harris as Duke d'Arcos Douglas Gerrard as Alphonso Jack Holt as Conde Betty Schade as Isabella Edna Maison as Elvira Jack Hoxie as Perrone William Wolbert as Pietro Laura Oakley as Rilla Nigel De Brulier as Father Francisco Lina Basquette as Child The Mute of Portici The Mute of Portici Slide, Anthony. Early Women Directors. A. S. Barnes, 1977; the Dumb Girl of Portici on IMDb

Thomas Richmond Leuty, was a British Liberal Party politician. Leuty was born in the son of Thomas Leuty, he was educated at Bramham College. Leuty was Liberal candidate for the Leeds North division at the 1892 General Election; the division was a Unionist seat and he came in second. He served as Mayor of Leeds from 1893–94, he was Liberal candidate for the Leeds East division at the 1895 General Election. This division was a Liberal seat and he held it at the election, he stood down at the 1900 General Election. He did not stand for parliament again. Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Thomas Leuty